1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print system in which a packet communication can be performed between a data processing apparatus and a printer through a predetermined communication medium, a method which monitors or supervises a status of the print system, and a storage medium which stores therein a program readable by a computer.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, in a print system of such a type as described above, for example, when printing is performed by a printer through a network, a user transfers print data to the logically allocated printer by using a computer to execute print processing.
At this time, in order to know how a status of the printer is being and how the transferred print data is being processed in the printer, the user is required to designate the printer logically or physically allocated.
That is, as the user recognizes which printer on the network is executing the print processing, he monitors a status of the printer.
However, when the user monitors the status of the printer executing the print processing, he must know which printer actually located on the network is one logically allocated by the computer.
Moreover, since the user must initialize a program to monitor the status of the printer, there has been a problem that operability of the entire print system is poor.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem. An object of the present invention is to provide a print system in which a printer side to which a print job is transferred from a user manages informing destinations to which a status of the printer changing when the printer processes the transferred print job is to be informed, and transfers the destinations to a data processing apparatus appropriately managing packets, whereby monitoring processing to cause a display unit to display the status of the printer receiving the transferred print job without forcing the user to issue an operation instruction can be automatized; a method which monitors the status of the print system; and a storage medium which stores therein a program readable by a computer.
A first invention according to the present invention is directed to a print system in which a data processing apparatus and a print apparatus can perform a packet communication to each other through a predetermined communication medium, the data processing apparatus comprising: a conversion means for converting data from an application into print data based on a predetermined print language; a transmission means for transmitting the print data converted by the conversion means and a print job including a packet receiver (i.e., destination to which packet is informed) based on the print data, to the print apparatus; a monitor means for monitoring a status of the print apparatus by analyzing a packet received from the print apparatus and for displaying monitored contents on a display unit; and a control means for controlling, after the transmitting of the print data, start or end of the status monitoring of the print apparatus by the monitor means by analyzing the packet received from the print apparatus.
A second invention according to the present invention is directed to a print system in which a data processing apparatus and a print apparatus can perform a packet communication to each other through a predetermined communication medium, the print apparatus comprising: an analysis means for analyzing a print job received from the data processing apparatus; a storage means for storing an informing address informing the data processing apparatus about a status of the print apparatus obtained by the analyzing of the analysis means; a transmission means for transmitting a packet informing the data processing apparatus about the status of the print apparatus based on the print job to the data processing apparatus according to the informing address stored in the storage means; and a control means for controlling, after the informing of the packet by the transmission means, the transmission means such that the transmission means analyzes a packet received from the data processing apparatus and sequentially informs the data processing apparatus about a response packet representing the status of the print apparatus being changed.
A third invention according to the present invention is directed to a print system in which a data processing apparatus and a print apparatus can perform a packet communication to each other through a predetermined communication medium, wherein
the data processing apparatus comprises: a conversion means for converting data from an application into print data based on a predetermined print language; a transmission means for transmitting the print data converted by the conversion means and a print job including a packet receiver based on the print data, to the print apparatus; a monitor means for monitoring a status of the print apparatus by analyzing a packet received from the print apparatus and for displaying monitored contents on a display unit; and a control means for controlling, after the transmitting of the print data, start or end of the status monitoring of the print apparatus by the monitor means by analyzing the packet received from the print apparatus, and
the print apparatus comprises: an analysis means for analyzing the print job received from the data processing apparatus; a storage means for storing an informing address informing the data processing apparatus about the status of the print apparatus obtained by the analyzing of the analysis means; a transmission means for transmitting the packet informing the data processing apparatus about the status of the print apparatus based on the print job to the data processing apparatus according to the informing address stored in the storage means; and a control means for controlling, after the informing of the packet by the transmission means, the transmission means such that the transmission means analyzes a packet received from the data processing apparatus and sequentially informs the data processing apparatus about a response packet representing the status of the print apparatus being changed.
A fourth invention according to the present invention is directed to a print system in which a status of a print apparatus being changed includes print start based on a print job, print end, and abnormality in the print apparatus.
A fifth invention according to the present invention is directed to a status monitoring method for a print system in which a data processing apparatus and a print apparatus can perform a packet communication to each other through a predetermined communication medium, the method comprising: a generation step of generating print data obtained by converting data from an application and based on a predetermined print language, and a print job including a packet receiver based on the print data; a transmission step of transmitting the generated print job to the print apparatus; a display step of monitoring a status of the print apparatus by analyzing a packet received from the print apparatus, and displaying monitored contents on a display unit; a monitor step of starting or ending, after the transmitting of the print data, the status monitoring of the print apparatus by analyzing the packet received from the print apparatus; an analysis step of analyzing the print job received from the data processing apparatus; a registration step of registering in a memory an informing address informing the data processing apparatus about the status of the print apparatus obtained by the analyzing in the analysis step; a first informing step of informing the data processing apparatus according to the informing address registered in the memory, about the packet informing the data processing apparatus about the status of the print apparatus based on the print job; and a second informing step of analyzing, after the informing of the packet in the first informing step, a packet received from the data processing apparatus, and sequentially informing the data processing apparatus about a response packet representing the status of the print apparatus being changed.
A sixth invention according to the present invention is directed to a storage medium which stores a computer-readable program to control status monitoring for a print system in which a data processing apparatus and a print apparatus can perform a packet communication to each other through a predetermined communication medium, the program comprising: a generation step of generating print data obtained by converting data from an application and based on a predetermined print language, and a print job including a packet receiver based on the print data; a transmission step of transmitting the generated print job to the print apparatus; a display step of monitoring a status of the print apparatus by analyzing a packet received from the print apparatus, and displaying monitored contents on a display unit; a monitor step of starting or ending, after the transmitting of the print data, the status monitoring of the print apparatus by analyzing the packet received from the print apparatus; an analysis step of analyzing the print job received from the data processing apparatus; a registration step of registering in a memory an informing address informing the data processing apparatus about the status of the print apparatus obtained by the analyzing in the analysis step; a first informing step of informing the data processing apparatus according to the informing address registered in the memory, about the packet informing the data processing apparatus about the status of the print apparatus based on the print job; and a second informing step of analyzing, after the informing of the packet in the first informing step, a packet received from the data processing apparatus, and sequentially informing the data processing apparatus about a response packet representing the status of the print apparatus being changed.